Mandy Brocklehurst & Some Cool Things That Happen
by Mandyx3
Summary: The story of Mandy Brocklehurst.


It was a rare grey morning, with fog on the windows and heavy clouds hung low in the sky. The gentle streets of suburbia were quiet, the only sound distant cars splashing across the freeway, and the dripping from gutters of left-over rain from the night before. The clock read 6:02, and many residents of the small town of Malbury were not yet awake. As it were, none of them were there to witness a peculiar sight that morning: a tawny brown barn owl swooping low over houses and along the wet streets. Its wings spread, it soared unnoticed above the oblivious population, under cover of darkness.

Mandy Brocklehurst was sleeping.

Her rosy face was pressed against her pillow, a cascade of messy auburn hair strewn across it, eyes shut peacefully closed. She gripped a soft blue bedspread between her fingers.

A chilling breeze passed into the bedroom from the cracked open window she had forgotten to close the night before. Mandy shivered in her sleep.

She was dreaming a dream she would forget the next morning, something about flying and wings and high places. The corner of her lips curved upward as she dreamed. In fact, she was enjoying her dream so much that she did not awake when the small owl alighted on the ledge outside of her window.

It was only when the owl started pecking it's beak against the glass that her eyelids flickered slowly open.

Her vision was blurry as she stared at the ceiling and drifted in and out of that land between consciousness. She frowned, confused, as she tried to cling to the swiftly fading dream.

Then her ears registered the pecking at the window.

She sat up slowly and dragged her feet out from under the blankets, onto the cold wooden floor. Mandy peered out of the window curiously and saw the blurry outline of the bird beckoning entrance.

Sure she was still dreaming, Mandy crossed to the window and lifted it slowly, sticking her head into the frigid air and leaning out towards the bird.

Without bothering to note the abnormality of an owl outside of her window in the early hours of the morning, she called to it in a quiet voice, and wasn't at all surprised when the bird obliged. Twitching and ruffling its feathers, the owl allowed Mandy to reach out a hesitant hand and pet its head. When it had had enough of this, it held out its left leg, which contained a rolled piece of parchment attached with a red ribbon.

_How strange, _Mandy thought, for it seemed like something out of a book she had read, and it was with shaking hands that she untied the paper from the bird. Having been released from its burden, the owl chirped and flew into the room, scratching its talons across the wooden desk in the corner.

Mandy turned back from the window and sat back against her bed. After watching the owl for a while, she turned back to the paper in her hand.

It was an envelope addressed as such:

_Miss A. Brocklehurst_

_The Room Down The Hall_

_14741 Heather Ct._

_Malbury_

_Bristol_

With a growing heart rate, she turned over the envelope. It was sealed by a red coat of arms stamped into wax: a large letter H surrounded by a lion, a snake, an eagle, and a badger. Something about the seal sparked a memory in Mandy, and her heart began to race even faster. With delicate hands, she slid a finger under the seal and slid out the folded parchment within. Unfolding it, she began to read.

_Dear Miss Brocklehurst,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Minever McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

A feeling of awe and wonder grew in Mandy slowly, as she read and reread the letter over and over again, her eyes resting on the word "Hogwarts." Something warm built at her core, spreading out to her toes and fingertips. The room was no longer cold.

With wide open eyes, she looked up to find that the owl had gone, and she ran to the window but could not see it anywhere in the sky. She stood there, searching, for a long while, before she remembered what had just happened.

"Mum!" she called, turning on her feet and whipping down the corridor to her parents bedroom, letter clasped in hand.

At 6:14, every light in the windows of 14741 Heather Ct. were on, and cries of delight and surprise, along with the rich scent of warm chocolate and milk, echoed through the halls.

Meanwhile, the shudders on the windows of every other house in Malbury were still closed, and no one was there to witness the tawny brown owl ascend once more into the clouds.


End file.
